I have a question about GPAs. What I’ve heard from most people is that your grades transfer to your UW GPA in a system where a 3.7 is roughly an A-minus, a 4.0 is an A or A-plus, etc.
However, my school calculates UW GPA so that a 4.0 is a 100, a 3.9 is a 99, a 3.8 is a 98, etc. What this means is that even though I have gotten almost entirely 94s-100s, my UW GPA is 3.6.
For the schools I want to attend, this GPA might be considered low. I’m a bit confused since, from what I thought I knew about the GPA system, grades like mine (straight As and A-pluses with the occasional A-) would give me a higher GPA. But I don’t know much about this type of thing and would appreciate some explanation on it. Why do different schools seem to use different systems? Will colleges calculate it according to their own system? Am I just being dramatic and a 3.6 makes sense for my grades? Let me know, thank you so much!
They usually have all the info in the school report to sort all this out since most every high school is different.
Yes, your counselor will provide a data sheet that describes this to colleges. They’re used to seeing all kinds of GPA calculations and know how to normalize them. Many schools will recalculate it with a standard algorithm, often including only core courses.
My D will have about a 5.32 from our school - it would be nice if that was so superior to all of those 4.0s. But it’s not.
No worries. Your HS will send a school profile with the transcript that describes the grading system, levels of courses offered etc.